Milestones: 1914–1920 - Office of the Historian Milestones: 1914–1920 The League of Nations, 1920 The League of Nations was an international organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to provide a forum for resolving international disputes. Though first proposed by President Woodrow Wilson as part of his Fourteen Points plan for an equitable peace in Europe, the United States never became a member. Cartoon critizing U.S. lack of participation in the League of Nations Speaking before the U.S. Congress on January 8, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson enumerated the last of his Fourteen Points , which called for a “general association of nations…formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.” Many of Wilson’s previous points would require regulation or enforcement.

In calling for the formation of a "general association of nations," Wilson voiced the wartime opinions of many diplomats and intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic who believed there was a need for a new type of standing international organization dedicated to fostering international cooperation, providing security for its members, and ensuring a lasting peace. With Europe’s population exhausted by four years of total war, and with many in the United States optimistic that a new organization would be able to solve the international disputes that had led to war in 1914, Wilson’s articulation of a League of Nations was wildly popular. However, it proved exceptionally difficult to create, and Wilson left office never having convinced the United States to join it. David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom The idea of the League was grounded in the broad, international revulsion against the unprecedented destruction of the First World War and the contemporary understanding of its origins. This was reflected in all of Wilson’s Fourteen Points, which were themselves based on theories of collective security and international organization debated amongst academics, jurists, socialists and utopians before and during the war.

After adopting many of these ideas, Wilson took up the cause with evangelical fervor, whipping up mass enthusiasm for the organization as he traveled to the Paris Peace Conference in January 1919, the first President to travel abroad in an official capacity. Wilson used his tremendous influence to attach the Covenant of the League, its charter, to the Treaty of Versailles . An effective League, he believed, would mitigate any inequities in the peace terms. He and the other members of the “Big Three,” Georges Clemenceau of France and David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom, drafted the Covenant as Part I of the Treaty of Versailles. The League’s main organs were an Assembly of all members, a Council made up of five permanent members and four rotating members, and an International Court of Justice. Most important for Wilson, the League would guarantee the territorial integrity and political independence of member states, authorize the League to take “any action…to safeguard the peace,” establish procedures for arbitration, and create the mechanisms for economic and military sanctions. Georges Clemenceau of France The struggle to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant in the U.S.

Congress helped define the most important political division over the role of the United States in the world for a generation. A triumphant Wilson returned to the United States in February 1919 to submit the Treaty and Covenant to Congress for its consent and ratification. Unfortunately for the President, while popular support for the League was still strong, opposition within Congress and the press had begun building even before he had left for Paris. Spearheading the challenge was the Senate majority leader and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Henry Cabot Lodge . Motivated by Republican concerns that the League would commit the United States to an expensive organization that would reduce the United States’ ability to defend its own interests, Lodge led the opposition to joining the League. Where Wilson and the League’s supporters saw merit in an international body that would work for peace and collective security for its members, Lodge and his supporters feared the consequences of involvement in Europe’s tangled politics, now even more complex because of the 1919 peace settlement. They adhered to a vision of the United States returning to its traditional aversion to commitments outside the Western Hemisphere.

Wilson and Lodge’s personal dislike of each other poisoned any hopes for a compromise, and in March 1920, the Treaty and Covenant were defeated by a 49-35 Senate vote. Nine months later, Warren Harding was elected President on a platform opposing the League. Henry Cabot Lodge The United States never joined the League. Most historians hold that the League operated much less effectively without U.S. participation than it would have otherwise. However, even while rejecting membership, the Republican Presidents of the period, and their foreign policy architects, agreed with many of its goals. To the extent that Congress allowed, the Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover administrations associated the United States with League efforts on several issues. Constant suspicion in Congress, however, that steady U.S. cooperation with the League would lead to de facto membership prevented a close relationship between Washington and Geneva. Additionally, growing disillusionment with the Treaty of Versailles diminished support for the League in the United States and the international community.

Wilson’s insistence that the Covenant be linked to the Treaty was a blunder; over time, the Treaty was discredited as unenforceable, short-sighted, or too extreme in its provisions, and the League’s failure either to enforce or revise it only reinforced U.S. congressional opposition to working with the League under any circumstances. However, the coming of World War II once again demonstrated the need for an effective international organization to mediate disputes, and the United States public and the Roosevelt administration supported and became founding members of the new United Nations . League of Nations instituted - Jan 10, 1920 - HISTORY.com League of Nations instituted Publisher A+E Networks On January 10, 1920, the League of Nations formally comes into being when the Covenant of the League of Nations, ratified by 42 nations in 1919, takes effect. In 1914, a political assassination in Sarajevo set off a chain of events that led to the outbreak of the most costly war ever fought to that date.

As more and more young men were sent down into the trenches, influential voices in the United States and Britain began calling for the establishment of a permanent international body to maintain peace in the postwar world. President Woodrow Wilson became a vocal advocate of this concept, and in 1918 he included a sketch of the international body in his 14-point proposal to end the war. In November 1918, the Central Powers agreed to an armistice to halt the killing in World War I. Two months later, the Allies met with conquered Germany and Austria-Hungary at Versailles to hammer out formal peace terms. President Wilson urged a just and lasting peace, but England and France disagreed, forcing harsh war reparations on their former enemies. The League of Nations was approved, however, and in the summer of 1919 Wilson presented the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations to the U.S. Senate for ratification. Wilson suffered a severe stroke in the fall of that year, which prevented him from reaching a compromise with those in Congress who thought the treaties reduced U.S. authority. In November, the Senate declined to ratify both.

The League of Nations proceeded without the United States, holding its first meeting in Geneva on November 15, 1920. During the 1920s, the League, with its headquarters in Geneva, incorporated new members and successfully mediated minor international disputes but was often disregarded by the major powers. The League’s authority, however, was not seriously challenged until the early 1930s, when a series of events exposed it as ineffectual. Japan simply quit the organization after its invasion of China was condemned, and the League was likewise powerless to prevent the rearmament of Germany and the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The declaration of World War II was not even referred to by the then-virtually defunct League. In 1946, the League of Nations was officially dissolved with the establishment of the United Nations. The United Nations was modeled after the former but with increased international support and extensive machinery to help the new body avoid repeating the League’s failures. Related Videos Formation of League of Nations | Making Britain Formation of League of Nations Date: Paris, then Geneva About: India was granted unconditional original membership of the League of Nations despite its position as part of the British Empire, and lack of political autonomy at the time.

The inclusion was widely considered to be part of an attempt by Britain to influence more votes in the League, but can also be considered ‘an important event full of far-reaching consequences. It resulted in a remarkable spurt of activities in both national and international spheres and gave India an opportunity to develop her international personality’ (Verma, ix). The roots of this decision lie in India’s involvement in World War I , and independent representation at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Arguably, this participation had its roots in India’s place in the Colonial Conferences and the Imperial Conferences. In March 1917 at the Imperial War Cabinet, India was represented by her Secretary of State, Edwin Samuel Montagu; the Maharaja of Bikaner Sir Ganga Singh; Satyendra Prasanno Sinha , Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India; and James Meston, former Lieutenant-Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. Montagu, Singh and Sinha were also included in the Indian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Also included as technical advisers were: Arthur Hirtzel, Assistant Under-Secretary of State for India; J.

Dunlop Smith, Political Officer of the India Office; and L. Kershaw, Secretary to the Financial and Statistical Section of the India Office. The Indian plenipotentiaries signed the peace treaties alongside representatives of other sovereign states on the basis of legal equality of status. As a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, India was granted automatic entry to the League of Nations. The League of Nations was an attempt to unify the countries of the world against the possibility of future war. In its Covenant’s ‘Preamble’ is written: ‘The High Contracting Parties in order to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security; by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war… agree to this covenant of the League of Nations.’ Its members were originally to be restricted to those countries which were ‘self-governing’, but exception was made for India on account of its immense contribution to the Allied forces during WWI . Woodrow Wilson was concerned about how other territories would respond to India’s inclusion, but delegates including the Prime Minister of South Africa pointed out that the Covenant of the League of Nations, drawn up at Paris and signed by India, guaranteed India entry.

India was the only one of the original thirty-one members of the League that was not self-governing. The inclusion of India as original member was one of the reasons why the United States did not ratify the Covenant of the League of Nations. The delegates of India to the Assembly of the League were appointed by the Secretary of State in consultation with the Government in India. The Indian delegations to the annual sessions of the League Assembly for the first five years of the League were as follows: First Assembly, December 1920: Woodrow Wilson, Jan Christiaan Smuts People involved: Sir P. S. Sivaswamy Aiyer, His Highness the Maharaja of Bikaner, Viscount Chelmsford, J. Dunlop Smith (Political Officer of the India Office), Lord (Charles) Hardinge of Penshurst, Syed Hossain Imam, Sir Saiyid Ali Imam, L.

Kershaw (Secretary to the Financial and Statistical Section of the India Office), His Highness the Maharao of Kutch, Sir William Stevenson Meyer (first High Commissioner for India 1920 onwards), Edwin Samuel Montagu, Maharaja Jam Saheb of Nawanagar , Sir Muhammad Rafique, V. S. Srinivas Sastri, Sir Ganga Singh (Maharaja of Bikaner), Satyendra Prasanno Sinha (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India from 1919) Published works: The League of Nation Starts: An Outline by its Organisers (London: Macmillan & Co., 1920) League of Nations Union, Journal and Monthly Report (London, 1919) Secondary works: Alwar, Maharaja of, India and the League, speech made at the League of Nations Union Dinner, October 25, 1923 (London: Pelican Press) Baker, Ray Stannard, Woodrow Wilson and World Settlement (New York: Doubleday, Page, 1922) Coyajee, J.

C., Indian and the League of Nations (Madras: Thompson and Co., Ltd, 1932) Greaves, Harold, The League Committees and World Order (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931) Jones, Robert and Sherman, S. S., League of Nations from Idea to Reality: Its Place in History and in the World Today (London: Sir I. Pitman and Sons, 1927) Kibe, Sardar M. V., The League of Nations and The Indian States (Indore, 1924) Manning, Charles Anthony Woodward, 'India and the League of Nations' in Freda M. Houlston and B. P. L. Bedi (eds.), India Analysed, Vol. I (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1933), pp. 30-66. Miller, David Hunter, The Drafting of the Covenant (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928) Temperley, H. W. V., A History of the Peace Conference of Paris, 6 Vols.

(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1920) Verma, D. N., India and the League of Nations (Patna: Bharati Bhawan, 1968). Vijiaraghavachariar, C., League of Nations and India’s Emancipation (Madras: The National Press, 1929) Williams, Roth, League of Nations Today (London: Allen and Unwin, 1923) Example: Verma, D. N., India and the League of Nations (Patna: Bharati Bhawan, 1968), p.20 Content: On India’s unique status in the League of Nations: Extract: Miller summed up Indian’s membership of the League as 'an anomaly among anomalies'. [Miller, Vol. I, The Drafting of the Covenant, 493] … It was a striking paradox almost without parallel, that India enjoyed in theory at least, and as a matter of course, the sovereign rights of dominions, notwithstanding the fact that she had not reached a condition of complete autonomy even in internal affairs.

The League of Nations About Watch and Favorite Watch Watching this resources will notify you when proposed changes or new versions are created so you can keep track of improvements that have been made. Favorite Favoriting this resource allows you to save it in the “My Resources” tab of your account. There, you can easily access this resource later when you’re ready to customize it or assign it to your students. The League of Nations The League of Nations, created by the Treaty of Versailles following World War I, was an organization formed to promote diplomacy and preserve world peace. Learning Objective Identify the creation, goals, and limitations of the League of Nations Key Points Originally envisioned in Woodrow Wilson 's Fourteen Points, the League of Nations sought to prevent wars through collective security and mutual disarmament, and by settling disputes through international negotiation and arbitration. The league lacked its own armed forces and depended on utilizing the military strength of member nations, which most of the great powers were reluctant to do. The league was unable to prevent aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s or prevent Germany, Japan, Italy, and Spain from withdrawing membership. Several key nations did not take roles in the league.

Soviet Russia never entered the league, and Germany was not allowed to join until 1926. Despite President Wilson's vigorous campaign for American support, Republicans refused to support either the Treat of Versailles or the league. The United States never ratified the treaty and was therefore excluded from any league activities. Terms Treaty of Versailles One of the peace treaties at the end of World War I that ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied powers. It was signed on June 28, 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Fourteen Points A speech given by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and to outline a postwar blueprint for global peace. Register for FREE to remove ads and unlock more features! Learn more Full Text The League of Nations was an international, governmental organization founded through negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, which officially brought an end to the First World War. The league was the brainchild of U.S.

President Woodrow Wilson, who first unveiled the idea in his famed speech to Congress on January 18, 1918, outlining the Fourteen Points , his blueprint for global postwar peace and diplomacy. The league was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. It also indirectly addressed labor conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. At its largest, from September 1934 to February 1935, the league counted 58 nations as members. While its philosophy and diplomatic aims were groundbreaking, the league never reached its full potential largely due to a lack of participation by key international players, notably Russian and the United States. League Philosophy The diplomatic philosophy behind the League of Nations represented a fundamental shift from the preceding hundred years. The league lacked its own armed forces and depended on the traditional Great Powers nations—France, Britain, Russia, Germany, and Japan—to enforce its resolutions, maintain its economic sanctions, or provide military support when needed.

Yet the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so because of concerns about weakening their individual strength and using resources outside their borders. After a number of notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s, the league ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the 1930s. Germany withdrew from the league, as did Japan, Italy, Spain, and others. The onset of World War II proved that the league had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent another world conflict. Creating the League By the time the fighting ended in November 1918, World War I had leveled a profound blow, affecting the social, political, and economic systems of Europe and its colonies and inflicting psychological and physical damage. Antiwar sentiment rose across the world following World War I, which was described as, "the war to end all wars." The war was ultimately blamed on international arms races, alliances, secret diplomacy, and the freedom of sovereign states to enter into war for their own benefit.

One proposed remedy to this sort of damaging international affairs was the creation of an organization whose aim was to prevent future wars through disarmament, open diplomacy, international cooperation, restrictions on the right to wage war, and penalties that made war unattractive. Wilson and his adviser, Colonel Edward M. House, enthusiastically promoted the idea of the league as a means of avoiding any repetition of the bloodshed of World War I, and the creation of the league became the centerpiece of Wilson's Fourteen Points for Peace. The Paris Peace Conference approved the proposal to create the League of Nations in January 1919, and the league was established by Part I of the Treaty of Versailles . In June 1919, 44 states signed the league's covenant. This cartoon implies that without America the bridge would collapse. The bridge represents the League of Nations, and Uncle Sam, the personification of America is reluctant to place the keystone in the bridge to complete it. This is odd because in the Treaty of Versailles, it was Woodrow Wilson the president of America that suggested that the League of Nations as part of his fourteen points. The missing keystone demonstrates how difficult it will be for the League to function without having the United States as a member.

But it was a Republican majority in Congress that blocked the USA's entry into the League, not the President. It is now known that Wilson was very, very ill during vital periods at Versailles and afterwards and probably lacked the will to win Congress around. The league held its first council meeting in Paris in January 1920, six days after the Treat of Versailles came into force. The aftermath of World War I left many issues to be settled, including the exact position of national boundaries and which country particular regions would join. Most of these questions were handled by the victorious Allied powers, and subsequently the league played little part in resolving the turmoil resulting from the war. League Weaknesses The league’s major weaknesses can be summed up in three categories: Representation, collective security, and enforcement. Representation at the league was often a problem. Though it was intended to encompass all nations, many never joined, or their time as part of the league was short. The most conspicuous absence was the United States. When the league was born in January 1920, neither Germany nor Russia was permitted to join. The league was further weakened when major powers, such as Japan and Italy, left in the 1930s.

The second important weakness grew from the contradiction between the idea of collective security that formed the basis of the league and international relations between individual states. The league's collective security system required nations to act, if necessary, against states they considered friendly, and in a way that might endanger their national interests, to support states for which they had no normal affinity. Finally, the League of Nations lacked any type of armed forces of its own and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, which they were unwilling to do. Its two most important members, Britain and France, were reluctant to use sanctions and even more reluctant to resort to military action on behalf of the league as pacifism had become a strong force among the people and the leaders of the two countries in the aftermath of World War I. The United States Rejects the League Despite Wilson's efforts to establish and promote the organization, for which he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize (bestowed in 1920) in recognition of his work as the “Father of the League of Nations,” the United States did not join the league due to opposition from Republicans in the Senate. The two-thirds majority needed to pass the treaty was not obtained.

The Republican Party , led by Henry Cabot Lodge , controlled the U.S. Senate after the election of 1918, but its members were divided into multiple positions on the Treaty of Versailles and, subsequently, the League of Nations. Among the American public, Irish Catholics and German Americans were intensely opposed to the treaty, claiming it favored the British. An angry bloc in the Senate of 12 to 18 " Irreconcilables "—mostly Republicans, but also representatives of the Irish and German Democrats—fiercely opposed the treaty. One bloc of Democrats strongly supported the Treaty of Versailles, even with reservations added by Lodge. A second group of Democrats supported the treaty but followed Wilson in opposing any amendments or reservations. The largest bloc, led by Lodge, wanted a treaty with reservations, especially on Article X , which involved the power of the League of Nations to make war without a vote by the U.S. Congress. The Irreconcilables were bitter enemies of President Wilson, and he launched a nationwide speaking tour in the summer of 1919 to refute them. However, Wilson collapsed midway through the tour with a serious stroke that effectively ruined his leadership abilities. Wilson's successor, President Warren G.

Harding, continued American opposition to the League of Nations. It was not until July 21, 1921, that Harding signed into law the Knox-Porter Resolution drafted by Congress, which formally ended hostilities between the United States and the Central powers. The United States was the only major power to emerge from World War I in a position of relative economic strength, putting America in the best position to intervene in international disagreements with potential for war. Therefore, the U.S. refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and to join the league had global consequences in terms of the financing and enforcement America could have brought to bear on league diplomacy. The irony of the large, wealthy nation whose president first proposed the league failing to join its ranks was not lost on other countries and was a major reason the league did not become the great diplomatic clearing house Wilson envisioned. The league cannot be labeled a failure, however, as it laid the groundwork for the United Nations , which replaced the League of Nations after World War II and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the league. League of Nations - History Learning Site League of Nations Citation: C N Trueman "League of Nations" historylearningsite.co.uk.

The History Learning Site, 17 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. League of Nations Background The League of Nations came into being after the end of World War One . The League of Nation’s task was simple – to ensure that war never broke out again. After the turmoil caused by the Versailles Treaty , many looked to the League to bring stability to the world. America entered World War One in 1917. The country as a whole and the president – Woodrow Wilson in particular – was horrified by the slaughter that had taken place in what was meant to be a civilised part of the world. The only way to avoid a repetition of such a disaster, was to create an international body whose sole purpose was to maintain world peace and which would sort out international disputes as and when they occurred. This would be the task of the League of Nations. After the devastation of the war, support for such a good idea was great (except in America where isolationism was taking root). The organisation of the League of Nations The League of Nations was to be based in Geneva, Switzerland. This choice was natural as Switzerland was a neutral country and had not fought in World War One.

No one could dispute this choice especially as an international organisation such as the Red Cross was already based in Switzerland. If a dispute did occur, the League, under its Covenant, could do three things – these were known as its sanctions: It could call on the states in dispute to sit down and discuss the problem in an orderly and peaceful manner. This would be done in the League’s Assembly – which was essentially the League’s parliament which would listen to disputes and come to a decision on how to proceed. If one nation was seen to be the offender, the League could introduce verbalsanctions – warning an aggressor nation that she would need to leave another nation’s territory or face the consequences. If the states in dispute failed to listen to the Assembly’s decision, the League could introduce economic sanctions. This would be arranged by the League’s Council. The purpose of this sanction was to financially hit the aggressor nation so that she would have to do as the League required. The logic behind it was to push an aggressor nation towards bankruptcy, so that the people in that state would take out their anger on their government forcing them to accept the League’s decision.

The League could order League members not to do any trade with an aggressor nation in an effort to bring that aggressor nation to heel. if this failed, the League could introduce physical sanctions. This meant that military force would be used to put into place the League’s decision. However, the League did not have a military force at its disposal and no member of the League had to provide one under the terms of joining – unlike the current United Nations . Therefore, it could not carry out any threats and any country defying its authority would have been very aware of this weakness. The only two countries in the League that could have provided any military might were Britain and France and both had been severely depleted strength-wise in World War One and could not provide the League with the backing it needed. Also both Britain and France were not in a position to use their finances to pay for an expanded army as both were financially hit very hard by World War One . The League also had other weaknesses : The country, whose president, Woodrow Wilson, had dreamt up the idea of the League – America – refused to join it. As America was the world’s most powerful nation, this was a serious blow to the prestige of the League.

However, America’s refusal to join the League, fitted in with her desire to have an isolationist policy throughout the world. Germany was not allowed to join the League in 1919. As Germany had started the war, according to the Treaty of Versailles , one of her punishments was that she was not considered to be a member of the international community and, therefore, she was not invited to join. This was a great blow to Germany but it also meant that the League could not use whatever strength Germany had to support its campaign against aggressor nations. Russia was also not allowed to join as in 1917 , she had a communist government that generated fear in western Europe, and in 1918, the Russian royal family – the Romanovs – was murdered. Such a country could not be allowed to take its place in the League. Therefore, three of the world’s most powerful nations (potentially for Russia and Germany) played no part in supporting the League. The two most powerful members were Britain and France – both had suffered financially and militarily during the war – and neither was enthusiastic to get involved in disputes that did not affect western Europe. Therefore, the League had a fine ideal – to end war for good.

However, if an aggressor nation was determined enough to ignore the League’s verbal warnings, all the League could do was enforce economic sanctions and hope that these worked as it had no chance or enforcing its decisions using military might. The successes of the League of Nations In view of the League’s desire to end war, the only criteria that can be used to classify a success, was whether war was avoided and a peaceful settlement formulated after a crisis between two nations. The League experienced success in: The Aaland Islands (1921) These islands are near enough equal distant between Finland and Sweden. They had traditionally belonged to Finland but most of the islanders wanted to be governed by Sweden. Neither Sweden nor Finland could come to a decision as to who owned the islands and in 1921 they asked the League to adjudicate. The League’s decision was that they should remain with Finland but that no weapons should ever be kept there. Both countries accepted the decision and it remains in force to this day. Upper Silesia (1921) The Treaty of Versailles had given the people of Upper Silesia the right to have a referendum on whether they wanted to be part of Germany or part of Poland.

In this referendum, 700,000 voted for Germany and 500,000 for Poland. This close result resulted in rioting between those who expected Silesia to be made part of Germany and those who wanted to be part of Poland. The League was asked to settle this dispute. After a six-week inquiry, the League decided to split Upper Silesia between Germany and Poland. The League’s decision was accepted y both countries and by the people in Upper Silesia. Memel (1923) Memel was/is a port in Lithuania. Most people who lived in Memel were Lithuanians and, therefore, the government of Lithuania believed that the port should be governed by it. However, the Treaty of Versailles had put Memel and the land surrounding the port under the control of the League. For three years, a French general acted as a governor of the port but in 1923 the Lithuanians invaded the port. The League intervened and gave the area surrounding Memel to Lithuania but they made the port an “international zone”. Lithuania agreed to this decision.

Though this can be seen as a League success – as the issue was settled – a counter argument is that what happened was the result of the use of force and that the League responded in a positive manner to those (the Lithuanians) who had used force. Turkey (1923) The League failed to stop a bloody war in Turkey (see League failures) but it did respond to the humanitarian crisis caused by this war. 1,400,000 refugees had been created by this war with 80% of them being women and children. Typhoid and cholera were rampant. The League sent doctors from the Health Organisation to check the spread of disease and it spent £10 million on building farms, homes etc for the refugees. Money was also invested in seeds, wells and digging tools and by 1926, work was found for 600,000 people. A member of the League called this work “the greatest work of mercy which mankind has undertaken.” Greece and Bulgaria (1925) Both these nations have a common border. In 1925, sentries patrolling this border fired on one another and a Greek soldier was killed.

The Greek army invaded Bulgaria as a result. The Bulgarians asked the League for help and the League ordered both armies to stop fighting and that the Greeks should pull out of Bulgaria. The League then sent experts to the area and decided that Greece was to blame and fined her £45,000. Both nations accepted the decision. The failures of the League of Nations Article 11 of the League’s Covenant stated: “Any war of threat of war is a matter of concern to the whole League and the League shall take action that may safe guard peace.” Therefore, any conflict between nations which ended in war and the victor of one over the other must be considered a League failure. Italy (1919) In 1919, Italian nationalists, angered that the “Big Three” had, in their opinion, broken promises to Italy at the Treaty of Versailles, captured the small port of Fiume. This port had been given to Yugoslavia by the Treaty of Versailles. For 15 months, Fiume was governed by an Italian nationalist called d’Annunzio. The newly created League did nothing.

The situation was solved by the Italian government who could not accept that d’Annunzio was seemingly more popular than they were – so they bombarded the port of Fiume and enforced a surrender. In all this the League played no part despite the fact that it had just been set up with the specific task of maintaining peace. Teschen (1919) Teschen was a small town between Poland and Czechoslovakia. Its main importance was that it had valuable coal mines there which both the Poles and the Czechs wanted. As both were newly created nations, both wanted to make their respective economies as strong as possible and the acquisition of rich coal mines would certainly help in this respect. In January 1919, Polish and Czech troops fought in the streets of Teschen. Many died. The League was called on to help and decided that the bulk of the town should go to Poland while Czechoslovakia should have one of Teschen’s suburbs. This suburb contained the most valuable coal mines and the Poles refused to accept this decision. Though no more wholesale violence took place, the two countries continued to argue over the issue for the next twenty years.

Vilna (1920) Many years before 1920, Vilna had been taken over by Russia. Historically, Vilna had been the capital of Lithuania when the state had existed in the Middle Ages. After World War One, Lithuania had been re-established and Vilna seemed the natural choice for its capital. However, by 1920, 30% of the population was from Poland with Lithuanians only making up 2% of the city’s population. In 1920, the Poles seized Vilna. Lithuania asked for League help but the Poles could not be persuaded to leave the city. Vilna stayed in Polish hands until the outbreak of World War Two. The use of force by the Poles had won. War between Russia and Poland (1920 to 1921) In 1920, Poland invaded land held by the Russians. The Poles quickly overwhelmed the Russian army and made a swift advance into Russia. By 1921, the Russians had no choice but to sign the Treaty of Riga which handed over to Poland nearly 80,000 square kilometres of Russian land.

This one treaty all but doubled the size of Poland. What did the League do about this violation of another country by Poland? The answer is simple – nothing. Russia by 1919 was communist and this “plague from the East” was greatly feared by the West. In fact, Britain, France and America sent troops to attack Russia after the League had been set up. Winston Churchill, the British War Minister, stated openly that the plan was to strangle Communist Russia at birth. Once again, to outsiders, it seemed as if League members were selecting which countries were acceptable and ones which were not. The Allied invasion of Russia was a failure and it only served to make Communist Russia even more antagonistic to the West. The invasion of the Ruhr (1923) The Treaty of Versailles had ordered Weimar Germany to pay reparations for war damages. These could either be paid in money or in kind (goods to the value of a set amount) In 1922, the Germans failed to pay an installment. They claimed that they simply could not rather than did not want to. The Allies refused to accept this and the anti-German feeling at this time was still strong.

Both the French and the Belgium’s believed that some form of strong action was needed to ‘teach Germany a lesson’. In 1923, contrary to League rules, the French and the Belgium’s invaded the Ruhr – Germany’s most important industrial zone. Within Europe, France was seen as a senior League member – like Britain – and the anti-German feeling that was felt throughout Europe allowed both France and Belgium to break their own rules as were introduced by the League. Here were two League members clearly breaking League rules and nothing was done about it. For the League to enforce its will, it needed the support of its major backers in Europe, Britain and France. Yet France was one of the invaders and Britain was a major supporter of her. To other nations, it seemed that if you wanted to break League rules, you could. Few countries criticised what France and Belgium did. But the example they set for others in future years was obvious. The League clearly failed on this occasion, primarily because it was seen to be involved in breaking its own rules. Italy and Albania (1923) The border between Italy and Albania was far from clear and the Treaty of Versailles had never really addressed this issue.

It was a constant source of irritation between both nations. In 1923, a mixed nationality survey team was sent out to settle the issue. Whilst travelling to the disputed area, the Italian section of the survey team, became separated from the main party. The five Italians were shot by gunmen who had been in hiding. Italy accused Greece of planning the whole incident and demanded payment of a large fine. Greece refused to pay up. In response, the Italians sent its navy to the Greek island of Corfu and bombarded the coastline. Greece appealed to the League for help but Italy, lead by Benito Mussolini , persuaded the League via the Conference of Ambassadors, to fine Greece 50 million lire. To follow up this success, Mussolini invited the Yugoslavian government to discuss ownership of Fiume. The Treaty of Versailles had given Fiume to Yugoslavia but with the evidence of a bombarded Corfu, the Yugoslavs handed over the port to Italy with little argument The social successes of the League of Nations At a social level the League did have success and most of this is easily forgotten with its failure at a political level.

Many of the groups that work for the United Nations now, grew out of what was established by the League. Teams were sent to the Third World to dig fresh water wells, the Health Organisation started a campaign to wipe out leprosy. This idea – of wiping out from the world a disease – was taken up by the United Nations with its smallpox campaign. Work was done in the Third World to improve the status of women there and child slave labour was also targeted. Drug addiction and drug smuggling were also attacked. These problems are still with us in the C21st – so it would be wrong to criticise the League for failing to eradicate them. If we cannot do this now, the League had a far more difficult task then with more limited resources. The greatest success the League had involving these social issues, was simply informing the world at large that these problems did exist and that they should be tackled. No organisation had done this before the League. These social problems may have continued but the fact that they were now being actively investigated by the League and were then taken onboard by the United Nations must be viewed as a success.

Question: In what year was the League Of Nations, formed?
Answer: 1919